Boulder, state wildlife officials plot coyote strategy

Five incidents in eight days trigger search for a response

No immediate decisions were made Friday in a meeting among city, university and state Parks and Wildlife officials in response to a series of recent confrontations between humans and coyotes.

At the meeting's conclusion, one participant disclosed there are now five reported recent cases, starting Dec. 24, of coyotes behaving in a threatening manner toward people in east Boulder within proximity of the Boulder Creek Path.

Three of those episodes had already been made public, including the biting of a female jogger Dec. 29 on the University of Colorado Research Park campus.

On Dec. 27, Matheson said, a jogger was approached within 5 feet by a coyote on the Boulder Creek Path just east of 49th Street.

Then, on Tuesday, a jogger with a dog was chased by a coyote while on the north side of Pearl Parkway, south of the recycling complex.

Following Friday's meeting, Matheson said, "Part of what we were doing here was figuring out how to respond to coyotes in town that may be dangerous to people.

"We wanted to move forward collaboratively. We don't have a solution now that we're ready to move forward with. There isn't a simple solution that we can create. We're trying to balance community values and public safety and the protection of our native wildlife."

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As for concrete steps on the part of authorities, foot patrols by open space rangers have already been stepped up in the affected area. And, as has always been the case, if a coyote that has bitten a person is identified, it will be shot and killed.

Meanwhile, people are advised not to approach coyotes, not to feed them, and in the event that a coyote comes near, the best response is to yell, wave one's arms and even throw a rock. And, while backing away from the animal is recommended, turning and running is not.

Friday's meeting took place against the backdrop of recently heightened awareness of unusual wildlife encounters arising from Boulder's urban-wilderness interface.

Most prominent is the fatal shooting of a bull elk late Tuesday night at Ninth Street and Mapleton Avenue by a Boulder police officer who then failed to report the episode.

Previously publicized incidents involving coyotes include a woman walking a dog having been menaced by a coyote on the Boulder Creek Path near 55th Street on Dec. 24, a commuting cyclist nearly being bitten by a coyote while riding just east of Foothills Parkway on Dec. 27, and a female jogger having been bitten on the calf while running at the CU Research Park on Dec. 29.

Theories as to why coyotes in that area are acting aggressively range from reports that some people have been feeding them to the possibility that there is a coyote den that the animals are protecting.

Broomfield is another Front Range community that has also recently struggled with coyotes, having recorded a series of attacks in the city's northern neighborhoods the summer of 2011. State wildlife officers shot no fewer than 11 coyotes in the city that year.

Broomfield open space and trails director Kristan Pritz said the city brought in three nationally known biologists from outside Colorado in January 2012 to identify management practices that Broomfield could adopt to combat the problem.

The recommendations those researchers made in a subsequent report to the city listed a menu of measures, which included public education, inter-agency cooperation, regulations to discourage the feeding of wildlife, habitat modification, hazing, lethal removal and ongoing research. Broomfield has also used "coyote crews," bands of citizen volunteers teaming up to help educate their neighbors on coexisting with the animals.

Matheson said that as she and other partners in addressing Boulder's problem continue to search for the best solution, "Certainly, the city of Broomfield's after-action report and coyote management policies and plan is part of the conversation.

Pritz, in an interview Friday, noted there have been no recent reports in Broomfield of confrontations involving aggressive coyotes.

"I wish the city of Boulder the best," Pritz added. "I know they're trying, and I'm sure they'll figure out the right path."

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